Kesri Likely To Emerge As Acting Cong President

There was a move for CWC member Rajesh Pilot to propose that the incumbent, PV Narasimha Rao, or the ranking general secretary, Janardhana Poojary, should function for the moment and a date be fixed for an AICC meeting, at which a new president could be elected.

A number of Rao loyalists, including Bhajan Lal, Suresh Kalmadi, VN Gadgil and Omen Deori met Pilot in the evening. Pilot, one of the many who wants to be in the race, has no backers in the CWC but might find support in the AICC. A late night meeting of the six dissidents, could not persuade Pilot to agree to Kesri becoming the chief but Kesri's backers planned to persuade Pilot during the day.

A number of party leaders based their calculations while agreeing to the emerging consensus over Kesri on his being a stop gap - until the new AICC, to be elected by December, elected a regular president. The Rao camp was sure Kesri would be termed acting president, if the Pilot plan did not work. And Sharad Pawar was said to have made a deal with Kesri a couple of months ago that the latter would hold the fort until Pawar could win the AICC election. Antony has reportedly made it clear that he will only take charge as full-fledged president.

Pawar's camp, which had expected Brahmin leaders like Rao to resist the backward caste Kesri's candidature, seemed surprised yesterday to discover that Kesri was acceptable to Rao and Sonia Gandhi. Though she is not a contender, her views still count with the seniormost of Congress leaders. Both Rao and Sonia turned to Kesri when they found that the candidature of A K Antony, who has a squeaky clean image, was not taking off.

While Rao, who will chair today's meeting and formally resign during it, was willing for either Antony or Kesri, many of his loyalists, including CWC members such as Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy, Meira Kumar, BP Maurya and Omen Deori were said to be rooting for Mukherjee. SB Chavan, K Karunakaran, JB Patnaik, G Venkatswamy and Balram Jakhar were among others who wanted to be in the fray.

Were Kesri to be elected, he could use his leverage to tilt the balance in the Janata Dal in favour of Laloo Prasad Yadav but, otherwise, is said to want the Gowda government to last. According to a party insider, Kesri has assured Rao of political support in his legal battles, of keeping most of his team on and of backing Rao to continue as CPP leader.

Kesri's backers said he was senior enough to be accepted by leaders who they felt should return to the Congress fold. He has a particularly good equation with GK Moopanar, Madhavrao Scindia and ML Fotedar.

They also spoke of Kesri's positive image among the scheduled castes and tribes and Muslims, pointing out that he had unilaterally spoken of providing reservations for Muslims while he was Rao's welfare minister. Plus, he has a pro-poor image.